2 June 2026 12:00 (UTC)
“It’s a very special weekend for us as we celebrate such an incredible milestone"
Every race in Monaco is special, but this weekend’s is set to mark an extraordinary 1000th Grand Prix for McLaren, making us only the second team in the history of the sport to achieve this feat.
Fittingly, our 1000th Grand Prix will take place at the same venue as our first, just over sixty years on from when Bruce McLaren debuted his eponymous team at the 1966 Monaco Grand Prix.
We’ll have plenty of celebrations going on over the week to mark the occasion, including a special one-off livery design, which will be driven by Lando and Oscar over the next two race weekends, featuring some McLaren-related Easter eggs.
Ahead of this weekend’s action, we caught up with Lando and Oscar, and have included their thoughts below. We’ve also looked at the key sections of the Circuit de Monaco, revisited on a legendary race from our past, and put another quickfire question to Lando and Oscar.
“It’s a very special weekend for us as we celebrate such an incredible milestone. The livery looks fantastic, and what better place to celebrate this than at one of the most iconic races on the calendar and the location of the team’s first Grand Prix. To have played my small part in McLaren’s incredible history is something I am very proud of. McLaren is a team I looked up to when I was younger, and it’s an honour to represent the men and women who make up this team for its 1000th GP."
“I am excited to hit the track in this very special livery. One thousand Grands Prix is a huge achievement for the team, and it is a privilege to be out there representing McLaren for the occasion. The car looks mega, and it feels fitting that this celebration has lined up to be where the team first raced in the Championship, 60 years ago. We’ll do what we can to push hard and in the aim of bringing home some silverware this weekend to commemorate the moment. Here’s to 1000 - I look forward to racing for McLaren for many more.”
More than any other race on the calendar, in Monaco it is the driver who makes the difference. More so than the cars beneath them, the setup, or the strategy. Racing at full pelt around the tight, twisting streets of Monte Carlo requires the utmost precision and accuracy. No matter how fast your machinery is, if a rival can get closer to the barriers than you, they’ll have the edge. On the other hand, you can, of course, get a little too close to the barriers – the smallest of errors can end a session.
It will be fascinating to see how F1’s smaller, narrower, and lighter new generation of cars fare around the Circuit de Monaco, with overtaking having gotten increasingly difficult at this track in recent years due largely to the size of modern F1 cars. While the track’s lack of straights and abundance of slow corners mean that energy conservation won’t be as much a factor this weekend as in previous rounds, with drivers able to recover a huge amount of energy under braking around a lap here. In spite of these changes, we still expect Qualifying to be more important than at any other race this season, so make sure you’re tuning in on Saturday.
Rounds 3 and 4 in Japan and Miami had been our strongest of the season so far, and with another upgrade ready to be installed on the MCL40, we had high hopes for Canada, but it turned out to be a weekend of two halves.
We enjoyed a strong Saturday, with Lando narrowly missing out on a Sprint win to George Russell, finishing second, while Oscar converted his P4 grid spot into a fourth-place finish to notch some solid points on the board. However, in the Grand Prix on Sunday, we endured a tougher time, with Lando forced to retire from Sunday’s race, and Oscar narrowly missing out on the points.
Five rounds in, and with a busy European season ahead of us, we sit third in the Constructors’ Championship with 106 points, 41 behind second place.
5 - 7 JUNE
Monaco in June can be a glorious place, but that wasn’t the case for 1984’s Grand Prix. Heavy rain delayed the start by 45 minutes, and when the race finally did begin, it had cars tip-toeing around the circuit.
Alain Prost lined up on Pole and made a good start to comfortably hold his lead, as those behind him began to falter, falling foul of the slippery conditions.
“I was the No.1 Mechanic on Alain Prost’s car in 1984,” recalls Indy Lall, Heritage Events Consultant. “Qualifying was smooth for us in dry conditions, and Alain scored his first Pole position of the year.
“Race day was less ideal. There was heavy rain, and the circuit was awash. Back then, we were able to make setup changes to suit the conditions, going from dry to wet settings, ready for the warm-up session. Alain’s sympathetic driving style not only cares for the machinery but also for the elements.”
While Alain was carefully nursing his McLaren around Monte Carlo’s narrow, wet and winding streets, a little-known rookie by the name of Ayrton Senna, driving for Toleman, was blasting through the field, rising from P13 to second by Lap 19. But he was still 35 seconds behind Alain, and the rain was getting progressively worse.
Alain was calling for the officials to stop the race, deeming the conditions to be too dangerous. On Lap 32, with only nine cars still running, his request was granted. Having led the final completed lap before the race was Red-Flagged, Alain won and was awarded half-points.
“It was a fantastic result for the team, our first win in Monaco, with Alain giving a master class drive,” says Indy. “The Monaco Grand Prix is always special, and 1984 was just that.”
Eighteen years on from McLaren’s Formula 1 debut at the 1966 Monaco Grand Prix, and 10 years after our first World Championship, the team had finally won F1’s most famous race.
Each race week, we’ll be putting the same question to Lando and Oscar or two team members to find out just how similar (or different) they really are. The question could be anything: from their favourite corner on the F1 calendar, to their ultimate pre-race anthem, or even the one food they absolutely refuse to eat on race week.
This week, we asked them which previous era of Formula 1 they would most liked to have raced in, and why? Oscar: Late 2000s, early 2010s. The cars were light, the engines were noisy, and they had really low downforce – plus, F1 had become much safer than it was back in the 70s or the 80s.
Lando: There are two eras. The first is the one I grew up watching, when Lewis and Fernando were at McLaren together. Those were crazy cool cars. The second would be back when Senna, Prost, Lauda, Hunt were all racing – these guys you always hear about, who played such a huge part in McLaren history. That seemed like a pretty cool period to drive in, so I’d also love to go back and race at that time.
Follow all of the action this weekend via the McLaren Racing App, available to download on Android and iOS.
